Bonded Summoner

Jake concentrated on the mecha-magical contraption as he inscribed the final runes on his armor. There were now a little over twenty-four hours left before arrival, and Jake was mostly satisfied with the results of his training. The girls… well, they always just found a way to make it feel like, while his efforts were important, they were just in a league of their own.

Each piece of his armor, each hexagon, had its own set of runewords arranged in a formation that was both fed by and enhanced by the other hexagons. Jake had taken some hints from Odin’s armor during their final meeting, and was happy to be able to reproduce a smidgen of the techniques he was able to identify.

Many of the techniques were far beyond him, he found after many hours of failed experimentation, but he was happy to find a pair that worked taking his enchantments to the next level. He had seen a web of inscribed lines leading from runeword formation to runeword formation, and that was mostly enough for Jake to follow after some experimentation and a Tier 1 Runic Enchantment book.

The other technique that worked was the formation of the runewords themselves, as he had noticed that the runewords were arranged in a certain way. He had found that replicating that added additional power and allowed him to chain effects much easier when following other guidance from the book.

There were others that he had seen, such as how it seemed like every inch of the armor had mini-runes covering it from top to bottom. This was beyond his capabilities, for some reason. He thought he had managed to carve the runes as small as he had seen them, but something about them was different. Either it required higher-tier ink or enough mana to be meaningful, or it was just something blocked from him for now.

The final technique he wasn’t able to replicate, which he identified, was that Jake’s lines between the formations weren’t so much a web as it was a circuit or line. He wasn’t sure what would happen if he managed to interconnect each of the formations with many connections, but it was more like he had one line that connected each, for now. He could not get even three formations to connect with three connections each, and he wasn’t sure why. Conversely, he had gotten more than double that in a single line. It would require much more experimentation.

Jake had made the proof-of-concept work and managed to inscribe it on Ophelia and Fhesiah’s new armor first. Their armor was much simpler, the individual pieces not being interconnected the same way that Jake and Bloodberri’s were. Jake was just not able to continue the circuit from one piece of equipment to a different piece of equipment very well, whereas Bloodberri and Jake’s equipment was designed to do so; locking into place the same way when he put it on like they were meant for each other, and, of course, Bloodberri’s armor was effectively a single piece.

When Ophelia saw this, she grimaced at the challenge of making them interlock in such a way in time for their arrival, the ‘circuit’ paths crossing items. She thought that she would be able to do it by working in tandem with Jake, but it would just have to happen later. These challenges had greatly improved her smithing skill, and she was making excellent progress through the Advanced ranks.

Jake put on his finished armor and went to join the girls in the training room. They were all practicing with their new armor and weapons when he entered. As it often was, it was Fhesiah and Ophelia versus Bloodberri. In a way, the odds were quite even, Bloodberri being two beings. You could easily see her tail as a viable adversary even by itself, and with how it had two minds controlling it, it might as well be one being and the upper body another.

Part of Bloodberri’s tail darted and spiraled at Fhesiah, forcing her to back off, while Bloodberri charged up a [Mace of Hestia] attack with her new weapon: a new giant maul, crafted by Ophelia working with Bloodberri. They had found a golem-like creature, that could more or less increase its weight when filled with mana. Extracting its essence, they were able to take this property and add it into her maul. It was a minor effect, but it took the already heavy maul and made it even heavier when she pushed mana through it, something that she already would do both with [Mace of Hestia] and enhancing the effects of the runes.

The maul had a flat end on one side, and a spike on the other and on its top. The grip was long like that of a polearm, even for someone of Bloodberri’s stature. The maul had two hexagons on each side, and two on the front for Jake’s enchantments, along with a magical focus in the pole.

Just before he thought she would lash out, a wave of darkness that Jake knew caused weakness radiated out, slamming into Fhesiah and Ophelia alike, as Ophelia had prepared her floating shield with [Hearth Of Hestia], immediately forming a flaming barrier. Ophelia grimaced as the wave of darkness hit her, but managed to interpose the shield in front of the maul in time and lash out with a thrust of her spear.

While the shield-turned-barrier managed to stop the giant maul attack, the fire burning within the shield diminished significantly. Ophelia’s spear reached Bloodberri’s body, but her [Armor of Faith] combined with a twist of her body, caused the spear attack to slide off the plate ineffectually. Bloodberri spun and lashed out with the spiked side of the maul, and while Ophelia dodged the maul easily, Bloodberri’s tail slammed into her shield and then knocked her from the side, having returned unexpectedly after chasing after Fhesiah.

Fhesiah now charged in with dragon-flame-empowered strength, but she was met with a maul, Bloodberri having recovered from her other attack being blocked. It was to Jake’s surprise that the maul was the one that lost the exchange, being deflected back and pushing Bloodberri back. Fhesiah had a vicious smile on her face as she accomplished this with her draconic strength that she had been working on, able to make use of it without pulling mana from Energy Sharing now. Ophelia charged in as well, and Jake wondered if the fight was as fair as he had thought.

But Bloodberri’s humanoid body raised and danced left and right, as her snake body coiled in a dizzying array of spirals, causing both girls’ charges to take a less direct route, a veritable death blender not being something you take on directly. The dance caused darkness to be released, and Jake could tell Blood released another dark spell, draining the two girls even further.

It was then that Jake saw the runes on Bloodberri’s upper body lit up with holy light, activating the rune words that Jake had placed on them. Her body alit even further, activating another [Mace of Hestia] attack. Ophelia’s Hearth which was placed in her shield set ablaze, and Fhesiah’s Torch released a giant ball of flame to add further onto that, her truths of flame making Jake feel like he was staring at a majestic star. Bloodberri’s tail swirled around the star, and some runes lit up with the power of Dark, reducing it.

It would be at this point that Jake would be quite afraid. Just how could this end without someone possibly dying or otherwise being maimed or dismembered? Jake had some confidence in potentially restoring the limbs of his bonded, but he certainly didn’t want to try it out as a result of a training accident. But the answer was quite simple: they bought the fixture that they had at the arena in which he had dueled Alisara. The framework would protect their life, and the fight would be called for the victor.

The maul covered in runes and filled with holy energy slammed into the golden sun, and it was like a bomb had gone off. Jake saw Ophelia’s shield flying off towards the wall, and all three girls were sent in different directions.

While Jake thought he saw the sun diminish a fair amount from both the dark runes and the energy in the maul smashing into it, the maul had eventually reached what was the core, and that caused the joint construct between the two girls to become unstable enough to explode, Jake guessed.

Bloodberri was blasted back, and her [Armor of Faith] and runes on her armor were pushed to the utter limit. Ophelia and Fhesiah weren’t exactly unscathed from the blast, but they were not nearly as close as Bloodberri was. Bloodberri surrendered the duel and Jake immediately cast a powerful runic healing spell on her. The other two girls spent some time recovering, but other than some dented and charred armor, and Jake imagined bruises, they were fine. Bloodberri’s armor would repair itself over time using mana from their hearth, and Fhesiah and Ophelia’s armor had similar capabilities, if not as good.

Jake noted the armor on Fhesiah and Ophelia. Fhesiah had what looked like samurai or ninja gauntlets, which only had coverage for the top of the hand and arm. This allowed her to use her draconic bloodline to turn her hand into that of a dragon, using her own hand as a claw weapon when needed. Otherwise, her armor now looked much like his and Ophelia’s.

They both had a chain undershirt and pants, with plates covering their vital areas. The plate had sections with hexagons that almost made it look like lamellar plate, but they were on top of the plates rather than comprising the plate itself. They were merged or melted together with the plate, making several areas just a little bit thicker near their vital areas such as near their heart and kidneys, and near where the shoulder guards connected to the chest piece. These contained Jake’s runes on them, and while the lines on his armor continued to other armor pieces making the overall enchantment across them all stronger, Fhesiah’s and Ophelia’s were similar.

Fhesiah and Ophelia’s plate armor and mail had monster essence from a resplendent tortoise and lava beetle corpses purchased off of the market. A combination effort of Ophelia and Bloodberri, they extracted and infused the essences into them as they were forged. Thanks to this, the armor which had a mixture of mithril and steel could be even harder while still being light, and able to accept numerous powerful enchantments. He could tell Bloodberri and Jake’s armor was superior, but their armor and equipment had reached the Epic level just like the necklace he had made for Bloodberri.

They dyed them to have the same red with gold trims that Jake and Bloodberri’s armor had, and they really all matched and fit together. Jake had not been able to make nearly as significant of an Einherjar effect on their equipment, only barely being able to fit it on the chestpiece. The undershirts had the same force dampening effect as before, and all armor had the self-repair feature.

“Damn. You girls really dialed it to eleven there.” Jake felt like he’d have needed to use his runebound techniques to even participate in that fight at all. While Ophelia had worked on his ability to fight alongside her in melee, without something like Juggernaut, Jake felt like he would be a burden that needed shielding in a fight like that. Though, his new armor might change that somewhat, especially judging by what Bloodberri was just able to accomplish.

It was Ophelia that spoke. “Of course. Pulling our punches would only make us less prepared. Thanks to the fixture, we can really go all out. Besides, that fight was a lot closer than it looked at the end there. Bloodberri could have recovered on her own.”

Fhesiah added, “It really is disgusting how she can cast two spells at once. Those two are really powerful. When these two can do group casting by themselves…”

Jake smiled, and both Berri and Blood beamed.

“Hehehe, I just can’t get all the runes right yet…”

“And I can’t activate the runes on both the maul and tail at the same time. How do you do it, sister?”

Berri animatedly replied, making gestures with her hands over her chest and over the armor and maul, “Well, I kind of take the mana and I vooooom, and then like swoooooosh, you know?”

Blood took over their expression to stare blankly, before inspecting her nails, which were actually covered by their armor. “Thank you for that, dear sister. How very… illuminating.”

Jake found the whole exchange very interesting. It wasn’t every day you saw someone sort-of interact with… themselves? What Blood appeared to be referring to, was that the new rune formations were a little more complicated to activate than simply flooding the equipment with mana, requiring a more conscious effort. Jake had no problem with this, his Hearth Runic Magic reaching level 3, but for Blood who was not quite at the Advanced stages, he could see it being a challenge. That Berri could do it so easily was a peculiar thing.

Blood interrupted his thoughts, continuing, “I’m still learning and practicing the Nordic runes, besides. It will still be some time before I can catch up to Ophelia…”

Jake had ended up having to make two circuits on each piece of equipment, one dark and one light. Berri’s was more the armor portion, while Blood’s was more the tail portion. The maul, he had managed to do some alternating between the two.

Berri was still learning Runic Magic, and making decent progress, with Blood’s help. His giant snake girl really was overpowered. That led him to think about the several goals he had attempted in these two weeks of training.

The first was to try to make some more high-powered spells. The fight against the Alpha Wyvern had shown Jake that the spells that he could make with the spell rod just wouldn’t quite cut it for boss-level creatures that were at the peak of their tier. He felt the creature was not quite at the power of a level 25 boss monster, and his effectiveness wasn’t quite where he wanted it to be.

Jake had thought long and hard about what had made the spell rods so powerful in the first place, and that led him to understand what he had accomplished: he had cast Tier 1 spells at Tier 0. In the end, this might not seem all that significant. He had merely gone from what was more or less a firebolt to a fireball: a firebolt that might be a little larger, and exploded when it reached the target.

So, how could he repeat his success? How could he cast a Tier 2 spell at Tier 1?

First, he had to learn more about Tier 2 spells in the first place. Just what made a spell cross the boundary? Was it simply adding enough mana? Jake hadn’t thought so, knowing if it were that simple, Jake could just empower his spell rods and he would eventually accomplish it. But he knew that was wrong because while he could power up a rune spell beyond simply activating the runes, there was a point where the spell would become unstable, and empowering it further would cause the spell to collapse altogether.

Jake bought several books that referenced T2 spells and spell-casting, though the actual T2 spell books themselves were too expensive for them to afford, costing Tier 2 credits. What Jake found was that there were two things that set apart true T2 spells, and simply advanced or empowered versions of T1 spells.

Complexity and quality. The spell would have to be more complex in order to handle the increased mana of the spell while providing functions that made a spell T2 in the first place. Then, the mana used had to be of higher quality, essentially T2 quality, in order to handle the higher demands of the spell, maintaining the weave and keeping the spell from crumbling. What Jake needed to accomplish now was to take the so-called fireball and make it into something more complex, like a compressed explosion, or fire storm for example.

Jake already had higher quality mana: his Divine Hearth. Using this, he did find that he could in fact make what was certainly an empowered T1 spell, that bridged the gap of Tiers and produced something above his tier.

But it still wasn’t a true T2 spell; he had merely made a bigger fireball. He needed to create a more complex spell, and he more or less needed to do it on his own, the Framework not really helping him as it was above his tier. Helping him with a skill that allowed him to produce results above his tier was not something it could help him with, because that would break the [Laws of Balance]. The advanced melee skills Ophelia had gained at Tier 0 would be similar to that empowered lower Tier spell example; just an enhanced version of the same thing. Now that they have evolved into the more advanced techniques, most likely these would be stuck at their tier.

Jake thought he was close, but it, unfortunately, eluded him. He tried things he learned using enchanting, and he tried crafting an amazing spell rod that combined rune words in the new formations he learned from Odin to create the most complicated and powerful spell he could, but at Hearth Runic Magic Level 3, Jake thought it might not be able to be done. He could use 21 runes in a spell, and thus 42 with his cheating spell-rod. Conversely, he had crossed to Tier 1 at Tier 0 when he had managed to make a 24-rune spell, though it took him many tries to find the proper balance of runes for a spell without it collapsing. Perhaps he just needed more, or just had to find the right formation of runes?

“Aww Jake, your rod is not performing the way you wanted? It’s okay, husband. It’s still more than enough to satisfy us girls.”

Jake cracked a smile. His spell rod was in fact quite powerful–

“No, Jake, Blood says Fhesiah’s talking about your pen– Oh.” Berri helpfully tried to clear up Jake’s ‘misunderstanding,’ before Blood let her know that Jake knew that but was purposefully ignoring it.

Fhesiah snickered, and Ophelia and Jake just shook their heads.

Ophelia then said, “No, Fhesiah is right. You aren’t even level twenty yet, and you are already able to cast a spell that half-way transcends your tier. There were as high as level 20 casters in the battlegroup that were still casting Tier 0 spells as their primary damage dealers. I think this is quite an accomplishment and one that will help us in the battles to come. Plus, there’s this that you figured out.”

Ophelia nodded over to Fhesiah, and they each began forming runic phrases before floating them together. Ophelia’s runes connected with Fhesiah’s just before completion and they empowered one another, similar to Jake’s runic enchantment circuits.

A giant spear of flames formed and shot off at their T1 training golem. It slammed into it and exploded, lighting it aflame, and Jake was once again impressed at the efficacy of the spell for such a low effort. This was similar to what he could accomplish from the spell rod he had used against the Wyvern Alpha, but the result was almost as good despite them not going all-out on the spell; the runic phrases they used were near the bare minimum needed to be successful.

They could now do [Runic Group Casting], which was a subskill underneath Runic Magic. While the skill helped them have some leeway with the timing of coalescing the runes into the spell, Jake thought their hearths being connected made it a breeze. Their thoughts and emotions connected; they could coordinate better than any group of casters, and he was reminded that such a spell from the battlegroup on Ariminium took over ten times the amount of time to accomplish.

He thought that [Advanced Runic Magic 2] might be the requirement for the skill, both Ophelia and Fhesiah having it, but he realized that with their advanced coordination, they might not even need the Framework’s help to accomplish this, now that they knew the rules.

As of now, they could cast a single spell with the three of them combined: Jake, Ophelia, and Fhesiah. Blood and Berri were both not quite there yet, but they thought they could eventually get all five of them to create a massive, powerful spell. In addition, the three combined could only cast spells that used fire, thanks to Fhesiah’s usage of demonic runes pertaining to it, though she was working on her dragon claw and kitsune fire related runes now too. Thus, their one spell together was just an even larger lance of flame that shot at the enemy and exploded.

Jake and Ophelia could cast a barrier and a heal together, but found the spells to be pointless with Hestia’s sacrificial flame versions of the two spells being superior in nearly every way. Not only that, but the additional time it took to activate the spell together often defeated the whole purpose of those types of spells in the first place.

That left them to work on once again a spear of fire, lightning, ice, and earth. Jake was happy with the results, as he knew there would be a lot of army-based battles going forward. Once again, Jake found that he couldn’t cheat with the spell rods or his spear functions, or the runic bubbles for group-based spells. The runes formed with that method would simply not connect with his ally’s runewords. On the plus side, his runebound when in the right state, still enhanced his portion of the spell.

They had also worked on an upgraded field of frost control spell that locked down enemies in a large area, and their own version of thornwood field. Jake would like to have a lot more answers to problems, but thought they were as well prepared as they could be in the time that they had.

Jake knew they would need every advantage that they could get. Instead of a world like the one they had just come from where it was mostly holding its own, this one was already on the verge of losing. There was the raid to be concerned about. There were still the rifts, the retaking of cities that were lost, rebuilding, managing incursions, forming his guild, and more for Jake’s party to worry about. When [Tartarus] was this close to success, there could be other events similar to the [Fortress Assault] that could spawn, as well.

[Tartarus] knew that he was on his way, the dying Apophis champion more or less saying that he’d never make it. Of course, he was assuming that the volcano would have taken him out, and if not, then the wyverns, perhaps.

Ophelia interrupted his musings. She said, “I know you don’t really prefer being the center of attention, but it’d really mean a lot of me if you could really play the savior this time, Jake. These people really need our help, and they need you to have confidence to lead; to take over and win the war together with them. They need someone to rally behind, and it needs to be you.”

Jake felt her desire over her bond. This was important to her, he could feel.

She continued, “Millions of lives hang in the balance, many of them not integrated; when they die, they die for good. Jake, I made you my chosen because I knew it in my heart that you would become an amazing hero. I loved you because you made me better, because you made me feel special, desired, and fulfilled. But I need you to succeed in this, to do whatever it takes to win. Because if we fail these people… I just can’t imagine how I can live with myself, knowing that I failed millions, letting them die. Just like… my mother.”

Her gauntlets gripped her shield and her spear tightly, and Jake could feel her heart wrenching at the idea.

She continued, “I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I think that… to show our sincerity to them, to build rapport with them and get the people on our side and join their communities: we have to show that we are willing to risk ourselves for them I think… we should swear an oath on Hestia in front of them, as the Framework will show us bound by it, with them witnessing. That if we fail them and the conquest progress gets down to 10%-- down to where a near-guaranteed losing Raid could be initiated where everyone would surely die, that we would enter a [Permanent Death Trial]. That we will fight together with them until the end. Otherwise, they might not join us, them thinking we’re like the other adventurers, that we’ll just run if things go bad.”

Tears filled her eyes, and Jake couldn’t help but mirror her feelings. The knowledge that he failed millions would shatter him, too. Jake, on a fundamental level, had always wanted to help others. He knew what it was like to feel like he was all alone with nobody to turn to, so he went out of his way to help others when he could. He had always wanted to matter, and for him to fail on such a massive scale would be hard for him to recover from. He had become a champion so that he could protect the sanctity of family. To protect others, and prevent more broken homes like his and Ophelia’s. To give people a home to return to, no matter what.

Ophelia was the same as him, coming from a broken home. Her mother died trying to defend her people, failing them. She had idolized heroes and what she had hoped her mother to be, wanting to succeed where her mother had failed. She tried her hardest to become great, but instead she was mediocre as a valkyrie and lost all her confidence, dying alone in a cave. But then she met Jake and they made each other greater than they could have ever possibly been alone. That led her to believe they could both one day be heroes and reignited her spirit. But for her, she felt that time had to be now, or they would never be.

Fhesiah snorted. “What’s with all this doom and gloom? I have to thank you, sister, for driving each other so hard to be the best that you two can be. Regarding the [Permanent Death Trial], I agree. It should be a powerful gesture, to put yourself and your family on the line for people you don’t even know, though I think we should qualify the oath with only if they welcome us into their community. It’s the duty of the strong to protect the weak, and I’ve long since said that I love that my husband has the heart of a hero.

I want the people of Highlands to be my husband’s and our family’s strength along with Hestia. How could I expect anyone to risk themselves for us, if we aren’t willing to do the same in return? It should go both ways, a mutually beneficial relationship.”

It was easy for Jake to forget that Fhesiah was in fact a warrior that would never shy away from a fight. Between her desires for seeking pleasure and enjoyment, it almost felt hard to believe that she would stick her neck out for anyone, but that is not true. She never would have agreed to Jake choosing Hestia if the goddess’s goals did not align with her own, after all. Jake just saw it as she min maxed her enjoyment along with achieving her goodwill, while using her cunning to minimize her sacrifice.

She smirked as she continued, “Make no mistake, the permanent death trial is a deadly struggle. Either we will win and ascend, or we will lose and die. This is the law of the jungle, the law of the heavens. I’ve said I believe that struggle is heavenly law, and that there is no growth without it. This is the ultimate tool the Framework has provided to both grow our family, but also fight back against Tartarus’ machinations. It was made available to us for exactly this situation, and we should be willing to use it. I think that our mindset should simply be to win. To never let it get to where it would be needed in the first place, and that us entering this Trial is only a result of Tartarus’ cheating, not our failure. And when we enter, the playing field will be as even as can be, and we will crush them, just like the Fortress Assault.”

Jake agreed about it being the perfect mechanism to turn failure into success. A critical component of the Permanent Death Trial was that, unlike the other trials, time was compressed or dilated. It was in fact possible for them to make this oath, and at 10% remaining on the conquest bar, they would enter the Trial. No matter how long they took inside, their success would push the conquest back in their favor should they succeed. If they failed, it would only have a minimum impact, them risking their souls as collateral. If enough people did this and won, it could change the tide of the entire war on that world.

Their rewards for success would be significant, and it would give them breathing room to push back Tartarus and go for the win. It was more than just simply pushing back the conquest progress bar, as Jake’s champion and supernatural race-stacked party would be lucky to push this over ten or fifteen percent with this action.

There were many ways in which the difficulty of Tartarus’ conquest of a world was tuned. From how many adventurers could come to the world, to how fast rifts spawned passively even if all incursions were won by defenders, to what levels and difficulty the rifts could spawn themselves. Then, potentially the most important: how fast adventurers were resurrected at an Alliance HQ when killed. Successes on this permanent death trial would tune all of these things more into the defender’s favor. It was clear that this mechanism was meant for the defenders as an ultimate tool besides the final raid itself, which was a near-certain failure on the losing side.

Jake looked over at Bloodberri, as there was no way he would risk his entire family unless they were all on board. Blood and Berri were both new to their family, only being together for a little over a month, even less so for Blood.

He could feel Blood’s feelings were conflicted, and for someone who radiated confidence in most things, this was surprising to him.

It was Blood who said first, “I don’t know, I think… I don’t like risking my sister and I for people we don’t even know. Berri aside, I know I don’t want to lose what we have with our new family. I have very much enjoyed the time we’ve spent together, and the feelings we share over the bond. I had once thought that only power and strength mattered, and I see that before, I wasn’t really living. I had protected my sister’s and my life, but I had only done the bare minimum to protect our hearts, and it was Berri that had done this in the end, instead. I see this permanent death trial as the same. That if we don’t do this and we fail the world, our family’s hearts will be broken, and our potential forever tarnished.”

Jake could feel her frustration and fear, her doubts over their bond. “I… haven’t been with you long, but I know I wouldn’t want to see my new family shattered with failure. I’d rather risk myself for what could be a substantial reward, and could award great power for my family, and this tribe we will build together. For our power and status to rise, we just have to crush our foes. We are not weak, and we will not fail. I’m sure of this.”

At the end of her speech, Jake felt her confidence. When it came to crushing her enemies, this was something she knew her family could do. He felt that her doubts or fears were mostly from going against her nature, to risk herself, and most importantly, her sister for others. Part of Jake knew that she came to this conclusion however, because she knew how Berri felt about it already. If Berri was against it, then he knew that she would have been, too.

Berri said, “I’m scared to lose this family, now that I finally found it. But… Just knowing so many children will die, I’d rather take a hundred beatings! Hestia said that there will be plenty of children to care for on this world. I want to protect them; I want to heal them. I know we won’t lose, so if this permanent death trial gives us another chance to win and save them, I’ll take it!”

They all moved closer in a sort of huddle, the family all wearing armor and not really being conducive for the hug they were all wanting to actually have.

Jake said, “You girls are all so amazing. I am so happy that I can face these challenges together with you, that we all drive each other to be better. I love you all, and I just know that no matter what we face, we’ll come out victorious since nothing can keep us apart. That we fight as one, our hearths burning together till the end of time, fills me with confidence. We’re going to beat Tartarus out of this world, and we’re going to do it as a family.”

Tears filled the girl’s eyes, but they were all happy tears. Their hearths flickered together, like their hearts beating in unison. They pushed their feelings for one another over their bond, their love for each other as husband and wife or as sisters. They shared their feelings for a time, but eventually separated.

Fhesiah looked at Jake significantly and said, “So Jake, that means you better dial your acting up to eleven this time. I will not be happy if you pull what you did back on Ariminium and with Antonius. You need to introduce yourself as the Champion of Hestia from the beginning. If one of these natives gets all uppity with you, you need to make them back down and show you the respect a Champion of Hestia deserves, or challenge them to an [Honor Duel] like these people love so much.”

Jake grimaced at the reminder, that Ophelia wanted him to portray himself as the world’s savior, and Fhesiah is of similar thought. He was not looking forward to being a public figure and leader. While he thought he could do it, he wouldn’t even really call himself the leader of his women; more of a strategist. They did mostly go with what he chose, but he more than welcomed to listen to their feedback and ideas before making a decision. Thanks to the power of their bond, their thoughts and desires carried faster than words, making it easy for him to understand the choices for their actions, as well as them understanding his reasons for his strategies. This kept his team from making significant mistakes, even if they appeared to do their own things at times.

Fhesiah sighed. “That’s part of leading too, of course. Only a shitty leader wouldn’t listen to their subordinates, or their powerful wives, in this case. But you can’t just let people challenge your status or authority and brush it off: it diminishes it, and once it’s gone, it’s difficult to get back. This is why neither Ophelia nor I prodded you to do differently at the time with Antonius, even if we could have done it discreetly; the damage already done, you having been going for a low-key entrance to the world. Then, you need to take charge for real this time. I know you were content to let Antonius do the hard work of leading the battlegroup, but I know you could have done better.”

“You really wanted me to take over leadership of the battlegroup?”

Ophelia then added, “I was quite disappointed when you didn’t take charge of the overall leadership, opting on just influencing the overall strategy, especially for the [Fortress Assault].”

Jake saw Fhesiah nodding, and he looked over at Bloodberri. Berri was just happy that Jake hadn’t refused to ride in her basket, but Blood spoke, “I’d prefer my husband to be lordlier.”

This surprised Jake. Even Blood wanted him to be more of a leader, more of a lord, with only Berri not really caring all that much. Jake had chosen to only affect the overall strategy slightly rather than take charge and run everything, because he was the outsider, he had no relationships with these other guilds that Antonius seemed to have. While he was a Champion, and Knight, Jake felt like taking control over Sons of Rome and the many other guilds was a bit overbearing, and with little to be gained.

He had plenty to worry about at the time, with an interloper in their party, and needing to make his own personal preparations; he simply wouldn’t have had enough time to coordinate and plan such a major activity. He was happy to delegate the minutiae to Antonius. Jake checked the time, only one day remaining before their arrival.

“Why didn’t you bring this up to me sooner?”

Fhesiah said, “It’s not a small thing, but it was still smaller than our other preparations. The fact of the matter is, power matters. If we are too weak, we will spend more time dead than alive, and accomplish nothing. So, leadership was still secondary to our training, and I do think you chose the right path in the end, with the choices you had available to you at that time. It’s just, if you had acted like a Champion from the beginning, you would have already had connections with the leaders the day you arrived, thus being ready to lead when it was time for the fortress assault.”

She continued, “We let you talk us into the low-key shopping trip and getting our feet wet in the multiverse, so I suppose it’s just as much our fault as yours, but you could have had much better connections with the guild leaders if you had been focused on leading from the get go. If you remember, we were more for you not hiding that you were a champion.”

Jake thought he understood what she was trying to say. So, in the end, this was just a long version of ‘We told you so.’ They didn’t want history to repeat on this world, and so she wanted to hammer home that Jake should have learned he was a champion now, and even going shopping: he needed to still be a champion. Well, that and the husband of a dragon-touched demoness. He wasn’t sure which one was higher in her mind, but since she killed a champion already, eating his soul or something, perhaps it was the latter.

Fhesiah added, “I know you’re worried about time, but here’s a book for leadership in The Alliance. I think you should be able to complete it today, while you spend some time thinking about what kind of leader you want to be.”

She had taken out the book from her bracelet, so she had already prepared and thought about this. Jake sighed. He would have to try out his armor later. In the end, it wasn’t all that different from Bloodberri’s in that it focused on a sort of Einherjar-type effect as long as he pushed mana into it in a slightly more complicated way, improving the user’s durability, speed, and power.

This effect would be enhanced further by Runebound, especially Juggernaut, getting around the fault in the technique where he couldn’t buff himself. These hexagons allowing many runic phrases to be added in a circuit allowed things he hadn’t thought possible otherwise. He hadn’t thought he could push mana through equipment and generate a full spell in a specific way without a magical focus.

While he had been able to apply this to his greaves to cast a miniature spell or cantrip-level effect of the stepping shield, it was only that. His attempts to make the shield on his arm that could cast runic barrier on its own when mana was pushed through it without a focus had previously been a failure, but now he figured it out and could likely accomplish this. He still wasn’t sure if he wanted more of an inertia dampening or such a thing yet, but he was leaning more towards the inertia dampening, as it was not easily used as a spell rather than an effect, and he could just cast runic barriers with little more than a thought already.

Regarding leadership, he would have to rely somewhat on what he learned in his life, along with his supernatural attributes and equipment to be able to pull off a convincing leader.

Fhesiah said, “Well, there was that one time where you mostly convinced Ophelia you were some kind of commander, but the bar was pretty low there.”

Ophelia laughed. “Ah, well, I was a bit out of it due to the circumstances, but I think she’s mostly right? The situation was all too weird, Jake having a strange, mute, perhaps bossy miniature woman floating around following him. He did take charge like my instructors at the academy, at least.”

Fhesiah laughed and said, “Are you trying to say that I am small?! In all seriousness, I wouldn’t have brought it up if I didn’t think Jake was capable. I would do it myself, as you might be thinking, but it’s important to me that you succeed in this, husband. I want the man I give my everything to, to rise high and be respected by many, as a husband of a dragon-touched demoness should be.”

Ophelia nodded at this, judging that the overall message was ‘good enough,’ and Jake knew he felt their own sort of agreement from Blood. Berri interjected, “I just want you to go on lots of rides on me, and I also want lots of babies! Enough to start a baseball team!”

Jake groaned. While one was sort of easy to please, they were also probably the most difficult to please in the long run. Still, he had a bit of time before arrival, but his girls have made their desires clear. The goddess had clarified that while it was opportunistic, she would resonate with the populace and she should obtain many new worshippers. Jake was her Champion, and thus it was both his lovers and his goddess with high expectations for him.

The world of Highlands is a world with a tribal culture of beastkin, and they functioned with close-knit communities. Being somewhere between beast and human, they had mixed values that caused them to idolize and venerate strength, but to also respect the community and desire for families. They sought strength and extended family rather than wealth and political position, though there would definitely be some that deviated from this.

This world was odd in several ways, in that it was smaller than Earth, and far more mountainous. The most recent report had their population in the millions rather than hundreds of millions, and they had already lost nearly a fifth of the population of beastkin.

Jake had to wonder, with so much death and so rapidly, just what were the gods and goddesses doing? Why didn’t Hestia just give him his task immediately after his Trial? But he learned that even if they could divine the future somewhat, there were so many other things to consider. Namely, that they are playing a game against evil gods that could do the same thing.

Perhaps Hestia had seen that Jake had plenty of time, and that their people’s struggle was ultimately a good thing for them. That they would be better for it, thanks to it in the end. The fight at Ariminium had been going on for years, how could a month matter that much in the big scheme of things?

They might have saw that sending too many resources would not only weaken the Alliance’s positions on other worlds, that they would ultimately hurt the world’s chance of true success in joining the Alliance and the Framework. Not only that, but could Jake have really influenced the outcome that much at only level ten?

If he had gone while he was weaker, he might have died, or their people who valued strength would have gotten a low opinion of him. That opinion would be difficult to change, even if he rapidly became much stronger than he was.

But then Tartarus changed the game far beyond what was foreseen, and what was a slow downward spiral that likely took many months or years ended up being more like falling off a cliff or into a pit trap. But the gods knew that whatever Tartarus was doing to take advantage on this world likely had a cost just the same, and thus while it might be winning on Highlands and killing people in droves, the Alliance was likely winning on some other, potentially larger or otherwise more valuable world as a result.

They would have to enter with a bang, and Jake would need to position himself as a sort of savior of the world, who would later become the de facto leader and owner of the entire world. At least regarding those that were a part of the Framework, anyway. He didn’t want to let his goddess or his women down, let alone millions of people down. It was an enormous weight on his shoulders, but he would just have to become strong enough to carry a mountain.